So the statue in this picture is pretty much the Cape Verdian symbol of independence. The town of Ribiera Manuel was where the initial revolt against the Portuguese slave traders took place. During the day of the revolt, women, not men, broke from their confines, charged into the kitchen of the main slaveholder in town, stole all the knives, and armed with these and also rocks, proceeded to massacre every Portuguese person in town, women and children included. The statue also depicts (although not pictured) a woman chopping off the head of one Portuguese, and then quite clearly shitting down his open throat. Nice.
It did not go unnoticed that the only ET (early voluntary termination) from our group thus far was doing her home-stay in this town, and by all accounts, the attitudes of those Cape Verdians living in Ribiera Manuel are not much improved, if at all, and it is apparent;y a VERY difficult place to integrate into the community, which is the over arching goal of pre service training in the Peace Corps.
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